It is known to introduce fibrous material (e.g., glass fibers) into a body of a muffler to absorb and attenuate sound produced by the muffler during operation.
As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 7,975,382, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, many types of exhaust mufflers are produced by mechanically joining multiple pieces to form a muffler shell. For example, one common type of exhaust muffler is known as a spun muffler. Spun mufflers are made by forming a sheet of material into the desired shape to form the muffler body and attaching end caps to this body by welding or crimping to form the muffler shell. Another common type of exhaust muffler is a clamshell muffler, which is assembled by joining an upper section to a lower section by welding or crimping. Both spun mufflers and clamshell mufflers are generally divided into multiple chambers by baffles, or partitions, and contain perforated inlet and outlet pipes that span between the chambers to input and exhaust the gases from the muffler.
A common material used to fill exhaust mufflers is continuous glass fibers. The fibers usually fill one or more of the muffler chambers and are often inserted into the muffler in a texturized, or “bulked up,” form. It is known to insert these bulked up fibers into one of the muffler shell components prior to assembling the muffler shell. It is also known to force the bulked up fibers into the assembled muffler shell through either the inlet or outlet pipe. Often, when bulked up fibers are inserted prior to assembling the muffler shell, it is helpful to avoid allowing fibers to stray from the interior muffler cavity and become trapped between the components of the muffler shell. The trapped fibers subsequently have an adverse effect on the quality of the joint between the muffler shell components. It is also helpful to provide generally uniform distribution and filling density of the bulked up fibers when they are forced into the cavities of the assembled muffler shell.
There is a need for improved systems and methods for filling a muffler with a fibrous material prior to completing assembly of the muffler shell.